QUORN Rawlins U16s rugby team made it back-to-back wins in the county plate final when they beat Beauchamp Collage 15-10.

QUORN Rawlins U16s rugby team made it back-to-back wins in the county plate final when they beat Beauchamp Collage 15-10.

Before the start both teams observed a one minute silence for James Barney, a pupil at Rawlins, who recently died in a car accident.

From the kick off Rawlins applied all the pressure through their forwards, but every time their backs came close to the try-line the last pass was spilled or knocked on.

Then, against the run of play, Beauchamp's winger broke out of his 22 and took the ball up to halfway. Only a great tackle from man of the match full-back Dom Smith stopped him but he was penalized for not letting the player go.

Beauchamp's fly-half stepped up and slotted the penalty to take a three point lead.

On the stroke of half time, flanker Travis Powell won a line-out and set up a rolling maul with Props James Hall and George Richardson taking the ball deep into their opponents half. With the try-line in sight, scrum half Ryan Allen went around the blind side and scored to end the half 5-3 up.

With coach Tom Roberts's harsh words ringing in their ears, Rawlins upped their game to a level Beauchamp could not cope with ending in a superb try for Hall from a well worked line-out move.

The spirited Beauchamp hit back with a soft converted try to bring the scores levels.

Rawlins then scored the best try of the game, Richardson burst through two defenders then popped the ball to fly-half Alex Rennie who put centre Billy Maund in space.

Six phases of play later, captain Caleb Roberts burst out of the maul and despite having three players trying to bring him down, sealed the win with a great team try to give Rawlins a 15-10 win.

Director of rugby, Peter Mockeridge said: "Regaining the county plate is a tremendous achievement and everyone at the school is very proud of the lads." Rawlins U16s rugby have won the county plate final for a second year in succession